Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
LAKES - Painted Wreath CS (2012 - 2017) [2021]
AR53
One of my favourite Australian artists in recent years. Whereas many bands who play in this style can often fall into the category of worship bands, Sean's writings bleed a certain authenticity that to me sets LAKES apart from pack. From my personal favourite "Blood Of The Grove" LP to the final 2017 EP "Silver Thorns", these exceptional recordings are now all wrapped up in one complete package.
"Sean Bailey’s LAKES are not an easy time. They are not a fun time. For these reasons, they are one of the best examples of Melbourne post-punk: winter music, isolation music, serious music.
From inception, they were the anomaly of the lineup at any Melbourne show by virtue of being serious. There’s nothing essentially good about being serious, a quality that in the wrong hands yields self-important, overwrought drudgery, but fortunately in Sean Bailey’s case it meant that LAKES were presented without compromise or hesitation, and they demanded more of the audience than most bands would dare. LAKES eschewed the ironic distance or narcissistic frippery of most post-punk and took an anti-fascist, peace-punk aesthetic to a neo-folk historically dominated by totalitarian fetishists.
This compilation of LAKES in its most realised and mature incarnation (2012-2017) reveals Bailey’s song writing at its finest. This catalogue of songs has clear antecedents in the apocalyptic folk and martial industrial of Current 93 and Strength Through Joy, but also the anarcho-punk of Crass and The Mob, two sounds reconciled within LAKES, and rarely elsewhere. Sean Bailey took all of this very seriously, and worked in isolation crafting a brilliant discography of songs crafted out of private dreams and nightmares and home recorded in private rituals, or together with collaborators in live performances that bordered on the ceremonial in their intensity and lack of entertaining frippery. Painted Wreath is a heavy trip." - Daniel Stewart, May 2021. (Total Control, Straightjacket Nation, Mont Icons).
0:00 Blood Of The Grove
2:14 The Oldest Place
5:13 Crossed With Leaves
9:25 Night Lark
12:11 Wingless and Earthbound
14:54 Visitation Dawn
18:44 All The Waking Dreams
21:27 The Longest Reign
25:00 Ashes Black
27:26 Painted Wreath
30:45 Carved Remains
34:10 Triumph of Spring
37:20 Thrust From The Grey
40:39 Dragon Current
43:54 The Rose Window
46:50 The Great Spiralling World
49:36 Wield The Edge
53:02 Vertical Strain
56:43 Crossed With Leaves
1:00:43 Night Lark
1:03:56 Carved Remains
1:07:34 A Face In The Ash
1:11:09 Silver Thorns
1:15:04 Frost
1:18:55 Flowers By The Graveside
1:22:43 Bletsian
1:26:16 Chant From Above: Live In Melbourne (2014)
BUY THE TAPE:
ar53productions.bandcamp.com/merch
DOWNLOAD:
ar53productions.bandcamp.com/album/painted-wreath
DISCLAIMER:
Uploaded on behalf of Sean Bailey
LAKES - Painted Wreath CS (2012 - 2017) [2021]
AR53
One of my favourite Australian artists in recent years. Whereas many bands who play in this style can often fall into the category of worship bands, Sean's writings bleed a certain authenticity that to me sets LAKES apart from pack. From my personal favourite "Blood Of The Grove" LP to the final 2017 EP "Silver Thorns", these exceptional recordings are now all wrapped up in one complete package.
"Sean Bailey’s LAKES are not an easy time. They are not a fun time. For these reasons, they are one of the best examples of Melbourne post-punk: winter music, isolation music, serious music.
From inception, they were the anomaly of the lineup at any Melbourne show by virtue of being serious. There’s nothing essentially good about being serious, a quality that in the wrong hands yields self-important, overwrought drudgery, but fortunately in Sean Bailey’s case it meant that LAKES were presented without compromise or hesitation, and they demanded more of the audience than most bands would dare. LAKES eschewed the ironic distance or narcissistic frippery of most post-punk and took an anti-fascist, peace-punk aesthetic to a neo-folk historically dominated by totalitarian fetishists.
This compilation of LAKES in its most realised and mature incarnation (2012-2017) reveals Bailey’s song writing at its finest. This catalogue of songs has clear antecedents in the apocalyptic folk and martial industrial of Current 93 and Strength Through Joy, but also the anarcho-punk of Crass and The Mob, two sounds reconciled within LAKES, and rarely elsewhere. Sean Bailey took all of this very seriously, and worked in isolation crafting a brilliant discography of songs crafted out of private dreams and nightmares and home recorded in private rituals, or together with collaborators in live performances that bordered on the ceremonial in their intensity and lack of entertaining frippery. Painted Wreath is a heavy trip." - Daniel Stewart, May 2021. (Total Control, Straightjacket Nation, Mont Icons).
0:00 Blood Of The Grove
2:14 The Oldest Place
5:13 Crossed With Leaves
9:25 Night Lark
12:11 Wingless and Earthbound
14:54 Visitation Dawn
18:44 All The Waking Dreams
21:27 The Longest Reign
25:00 Ashes Black
27:26 Painted Wreath
30:45 Carved Remains
34:10 Triumph of Spring
37:20 Thrust From The Grey
40:39 Dragon Current
43:54 The Rose Window
46:50 The Great Spiralling World
49:36 Wield The Edge
53:02 Vertical Strain
56:43 Crossed With Leaves
1:00:43 Night Lark
1:03:56 Carved Remains
1:07:34 A Face In The Ash
1:11:09 Silver Thorns
1:15:04 Frost
1:18:55 Flowers By The Graveside
1:22:43 Bletsian
1:26:16 Chant From Above: Live In Melbourne (2014)
BUY THE TAPE:
ar53productions.bandcamp.com/merch
DOWNLOAD:
ar53productions.bandcamp.com/album/painted-wreath
DISCLAIMER:
Uploaded on behalf of Sean Bailey
